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Tullamarine midfielder Steve McCallum was named 2009 club champion on Friday night at the Calder Cannons annual Robert Hyde Medal.
The Cannons highest accolade is aptly named after club coaching great and 3 time premiership coach Robert Hyde and is awarded on a voting system where by 3 match committee members votes are given on a 5,4,3,2,1 basis after each game.
McCallum’s wonderful early season form saw him lead the count by an astonishing 44 votes at the halfway mark of the
year from Ruperstwood utility Taylor Hine. An ongoing battle with injury saw McCallum poll only 14 votes over the second half of the year with Hine hitting his straps as the season progressed racking up 51 votes in 9 matches, which included 2 best on ground performances.
Nonetheless, the steely McCallum managed to push through his discomfort to play a leading role in setting up the Cannons victory in the Elimination Final against the North Ballarat Rebels which saw him amass 14 first half possessions and two goals, one of which was a memorable textbook front and centre left foot snap.
Heading into the Grand Final McCallum found himself 6 votes in front of Hine whom had been named Calder’s best player in their Preliminary Final victory having contained Eastern Ranges danger man Jordan Gysberts to six second half possessions and zero goals.
Whilst both players were more than serviceable in the Grand Final neither polled a vote leaving McCallum to collect the award after a third place finish in last years count. In accepting the award McCallum made special mention of his parents Gordon and Bernadette, explaining that an early season talk with incumbent region Manager Ian Kyte had made him realise the importance of family and making the most of his opportunities.
Hine was delighted with his year and to run second as a bottom age player in a premiership year is a wonderful achievement. His solid year was rewarded with an invitation to last months AFL Draft camp which he explained had been an “amazing experience”. Taylor is now in the mix as one of six U17 players nation wide to be signed for the final four spots on the Gold Coasts list for next season.
Third place was a tie between bottom age player and clearance king Tom Liberatore and spearhead Serhat Temel.
Other award winners on the night were:
ROBERT HYDE MEDAL
STEVE McCALLUM
RUNNER UP BEST & FAIREST – 2009
TAYLOR HINE
3RD BEST & FAIREST – 2009
TOM LIBERATORE, SERHAT TEMEL
TEAM TARGETS AWARD – 2009
13 GAMES, 9.77 AVERAGE, 127 TOTAL
TOM LIBERATORE
LEADING GOALKICKER – 2009
SERHAT TEMEL
54 GOALS
BEST FINALS PLAYER – 2009
SERHAT TEMEL
36 VOTES
COACHES AWARD – 2009
TOM HUNTER
MOST COURAGEOUS PLAYER – 2009
TOM LUCIN
MOST IMPROVED – 2009
BRENDAN FEWSTER
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – 2009
BRAD McCANN (2008 VCE ENTER SCORE: 99.3)
U’16 "ROOKIE" AWARD – 2009
BLAIR CRONIN
"DOUG McCASKER TROPHY" MOST VALUABLE CLUB PERSON AWARD – 2009
ROB FORSTER-KNIGHT
CALDER CANNONS FOOTBALL CLUB LIFE MEMBERSHIP
DR.DAVID BOLZONELLO
ANNE CROUGHAN
ALAN CROUGHAN
To view all of the photos form the evening click on the “Photo Gallery” tab located on the left hand side of the page.
Season Highlights as well as a Grand Final Video Highlights will be placed on the Cannons website soon.
By Len Villani
Last Modified on 13/10/2009 11:59
